Tuesday, September 30, 1997
Raising a war ship
Taiwan will soon be able to pay tribute to Sun Yat-Sen at the
site of their hard-won independence from China
By Meghan Ward
Daily Bruin Contributor
Last month, a Buddhist monk and UCLA employee travelled to China
to raise a sunken warship.
Dr. William Upton-Knittle, senior coordinator of the UCLA Office
of Summer Sessions Advertising and Marketing, was invited by
government officials of the People’s Republic of China to help plan
fund-raising for a project known as the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Victory
Memorial.
An acquaintance of Upton-Knittle, Thomas Kao of Chinese News
Channel 18 had asked him to write a proposal for the project.
Upton-Knittle jumped at the chance to participate in this
important Chinese historical event.
Sun, known as the father of modern China, overthrew the Ch’ing
dynasty and became the first president of the Republic of
China.
It was to the Sun Yat-sen Warship that Sun and his wife secretly
fled on after the presidential palace was seized in 1922.
Having formed a Republic out of the southern provinces of China,
Sun fought the revolution against the northern provinces from
aboard the Zhong Shan.
For 53 days, Sun remained aboard the warship, achieving the
victory that gave birth to a unified Republic of China.
The warship was raised from the Yangtze River on Jan. 28, 1997,
where it had remained for 58 years after being sunk by Japanese
bombs.
Dr. Upton-Knittle emphasizes the importance of erecting a
memorial at the site of the Sun Yat-sen in order for all people of
Chinese ancestry to visit the spot where their Republic was
born.
"Americans can go to Philadelphia to stand on the spot where the
Constitution was signed. The Chinese have nowhere to go," he
said.
While meeting with the wife of Dr. Sun’s grandson and two of
Sun’s great-grandsons, as well as government officials of the
People’s Republic, a dilemma arose. Though the Yat-sen was raised
up near the city of Wuhan, in the Hubei Province, the revolution
was won while the ship was in the city of Guangzhou, in the
Guangdong Province.
Unwilling to surrender the ship to the Guangdong Province,
officials of Hubei Province agreed to consider Upton-Knittle’s
proposal to erect a second memorial at the original site where the
revolution was won.
"The Chinese people should be able to stand on the exact spot
where their Republic was founded," insists Upton-Knittle.
There will be a 26-kilometer superhighway built from Wuhan to
the site of the ship, and a magnificent bridge will span the
Yangtze River. The ship will be enclosed in crystal housing, and
there will be a park, museum and historical diorama building.
"Dr. Sun is greatly beloved to the Chinese people. One man
referred to him as ‘my father’," Upton-Knittle remembers.
Upton-Knittle also proposed that the fund-raisers for the
memorial seek financial support from Taiwan. "The Taiwanese would
love to see their flag flying alongside the Chinese flag in two
more places. Today, the only place in China that both flags fly
side by side is at Dr. Sun’s mausoleum in Nanjing."
In addition, Upton-Knittle found himself giving Communist
officials a crash course in capitalistic thinking. Beijing has
given officials permission to raise funds outside of China, a task
unfamiliar to the officials working on the project.
When they showed Upton-Knittle the initial plans for the
project, "there was no parking lot. Twelve million people in
Beijing and they forget the parking lot," he remembers.
He experienced several such encounters, which showed him the
need for better planning and envisioning.
For Upton-Knittle, it was a culture shock in other ways. He
found that the China that he had studied and dreamt about for so
many years was very different from the China he was
discovering.
Having been a stateside student of Chinese medicine, he expected
to go abroad and encounter it firsthand.
Mao Ju-Ying, director of research and development of the state
pharmaceuticals company, and a member of the Zhong Shan
fund-raising team, was unfamiliar with several of the ancient
Chinese remedies that have become popular here in the United
States.
He also wasn’t sure how much remained of the old Communist
privilege. Finding a couple days at the end of his stay to squeeze
in some sightseeing, Upton-Knittle had a chance to go bowling with
some of the government officials who were working on the project.
Three lanes on the left side of the alley were reserved for
Communist officials.
Upton-Knittle hopes to return to China soon, at which time he
plans to "introduce the Chinese to some ancient Chinese remedies."
Upton-Knittle was ordained 20 years ago as a Buddhist monk in all
traditions.
A life-long practitioner of martial arts, Upton-Knittle’s
biography is published in "Who’s Who in America," "Who’s Who in
Finance and Industry," "Who’s Who in Entertainment" and the
"International Authors and Writers Who’s Who."